I just heard about a serious incident involving a bystander. No one was severely injured or booked into a hospital but still it was pretty scary. Really don't want to go into more detail than that.

Point is we need to be very careful about flying kites near others. If your kite skills aren't all that solid or if your control is challenged by conditions, DON'T HAVE bystanders in the likely impact area downwind. If these means taking more quality lessons, waiting, moving, getting offshore and staying there or even driving to another launch, DO IT. If you see someone with bad practices like this, grab some friends and have as effective talk with him as you can.

Too often guys don't pay attention to this open the door to problems. Stupid things like walking upwind of bystanders when you can just as easily pass on the downwind side, launching or landing with bystanders close to and downwind of lines, etc.. Human nature may have us ignore these simple precautions, don't fall into that trap. Have a care for the sake of our access.

FKA, Inc.

transcribed by:
Rick Iossi

Last edited by RickI on Fri Sep 28, 2007 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I just heard about a serious incident involving a bystander. No one was severely injured or booked into a hospital but still it was pretty scary. Really don't want to go into more detail than that.

Point is we need to be very careful about flying kites near others. If your kite skills aren't all that solid or if your control is challenged by conditions, DON'T HAVE bystanders in the likely impact area downwind. If these means taking more quality lessons, waiting, moving, getting offshore and staying there...

Pardon me, are you saying the less skilled (meaning students) are encouraged to have a deep water tuition program?

if so, is this the "quality lesson" you are referring to?

If not, pardon me for misunderstanding your suggestions.

RickI wrote:

...or even driving to another launch, DO IT. If you see someone with bad practices like this, grab some friends and have as effective talk with him as you can.

Now are you talking about talking to sand swamis who encourage beach practice and are responsible for the parades of rookies walking back up-wind; kites high, just to try it again in the swim zone, through the sand pail crowd at water's edge/ children?are these the scalawags that need a good talking to?

If not, pardon me for my misunderstanding.

RickI wrote:

Too often guys don't pay attention to this open the door to problems. Stupid things like walking upwind of bystanders when you can just as easily pass on the downwind side, launching or landing with bystanders close to and downwind of lines, etc.. Human nature may have us ignore these simple precautions, don't fall into that trap. Have a care for the sake of our access.

Was the beach mostly empty and this one rider just happened to have a problem in that location (freak accident), or was the beach packed and this rider was f*cking around where they shouldn't have?

I'll render judgement after I have all the facts - although based on the typical behavior I see from some riders and how difficult it is to get them to change that behavior even a little, I would lay odds on the latter...

Whichever it was, be prepared for this to be blown COMPLETELY out of proportion - novelty + dread = news, and a kitesurfer scaring the crap out of a 3yr-old has plenty of both. Tomorrow we see the "kitesurfing banned in Portsmouth" thread?

Have folks seen close calls involving others? If so, what simple steps might have been taken to avoid problems?

Yep. Several this summer. Fortunately no one hit by a kite just very close calls. Simple steps to avoid the problems have been mentioned but here are some

1. Be aware of your surroundings. Many times newbies are concentrating on getting up on the board and don't realize they've gone into a swim area or close to swimmers.

2. Kite control. Work on it (I still am) Most incidents were when the person was trying to regain control of the kite.

3. If the wind dies and you are going to go into a swimming area - release your kite to safety, self rescue and swim in. Much safer than trying to fly the kite. Well at least in the great lakes that is. Might be a problem in the ocean.

4. Kiting too close to the beach.

5. Have enough separation if stuff goes bad. This applies to people, the beach, trees (yes trees - we have a launch here that has a kite eating tree - 7 was the last count I heard) and obstacles

Yet the good news in all this is that this stuff is in the minority. Most people are safe.

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